Correct! The Senate Democratic Conference has clearly boned up on their mid-20th Century modernist dramatists since last fall, when Liz Krueger deployed a faulty Beckett reference during the DRP negotiations (“You know how it works in Albany: It’s like wait for Godot, wait for Godot, and finally Godot visits”).

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. explained Espada’s absence thusly: “He’s in Staten Island fighting to end racism to the Hispanic community. So he’s defending the Hispanic community as the majority leader of the Senate.”

Espada was referring to a 1 p.m. demonstration against the recent attacks on Hispanic youths on the island.

Is this irresponsible? “To each his own,” Diaz said. The senator said he would be attending a similar rally next week. “There’s one today, one next week. We coordinated.”

“Don’t blame it on Espada,” Diaz said of what is increasingly expected to be another gavel-in, gavel-out episode. “Nothing is going to happen here. He’s doing better things.”

Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein tried to stay hopeful and diplomatic. “We’re hopeful he’s going to be coming up. We found out this morning through a press release he may not be coming up, we’re hopeful he is coming up because we need 32 votes to pass the revenue bill.”

Klein was confident there would be action on an FMAP bill, because there is a “three-way agreement” on it.

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